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Deconstruction in Elfen Lied
Introduction Elfen Lied is often called a Deconstruction of several manga and anime tropes, both in the overall series itself and in the characters. This essay's aim is to show the various genres, themes and character types that are deconstructed within the series, and perhaps even in-series deconstructions of the primary characters by characters introduced later on. A deconstruction can be humorous, but just as often shows how some elements may not be humorous at all. It is not a satire or a parody, though the focus on certain elements can be taken that way. This essay will use the ten or so primary characters as the basis for this extended analysis. In order to avoid overanalysis on future edits, one useful idea is to recall a story told about Sigmund Freud. Older now, the father of modern psychology had grown sick of his once-breakthrough notions being misused, overused and simply interpreted wrong as people latched onto style more than substance. This was especially true of his work with dreams and sexual imagery. When Freud was smoking a cigar, a friend saw this and humorously commented that this could be seen as a phallic symbol. Fed up, Freud briefly stopped smoking and looked at his friend. He commented that "Sometimes A Cigar Is Only A Cigar!". Whether that story is true or not, its wisdom holds up : The Bakery Merchant who kindly aids Mayu is more than likely simply a nice woman who helps out a kid in trouble. Some things just are, and need no further checks. This essay is about those elements that do. The Magical Girlfriend Just as the 1940's Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons are a prototypical influence on anime in general, so is another Western source considered the start of the Magical Girlfriend genre. That source is I Dream Of Jeannie, a 1960's sitcom created by page-turner-novel bestseller Sidney Sheldon, who incidentally also created The Patty Duke Show, ''wherein two young women who looked exactly alike had vastly different personalities (Actress Patty Duke is an award winning performer and the mother of Sean Astin). While the genre often veers as far away from it as anime in general does for those ancient Superman cartoons, it is where the rules are laid down and to an extent, codified, to be followed, subverted or rewritten entirely as suits the need of a mangaka. While 'Bewitched' may also fall in here, it is somewhat different enough to not be in focus. From the start of that latter series, Darrin Stephens enters the world of his once-secretive bride, and very begrudgingly accepts (or usually not) that her world will impact on his. USAF Captain, later Major, Anthony Nelson tries his best to keep the world of his secret house-mate just that, while slowly accepting that the girl in the bottle means quite a bit to him. Unlike nearly every protagonist in manga/anime, though, Tony Nelson is already living the dream life of a pilot and astronaut in an age of discovery, and is very much pursued by other women. Yet as we will see, Tony and Kouta meet up more often than one might think, and while blonde, Jeannie has more than a little Lucy in her. While far apart in terms of their views on Humanity, both series feature immensely powerful, socially awkward young women who become massively intrigued by a young man who is nothing like those they have known before. For Jeannie, the idea that Nelson would not want her company and a lifetime of wish fulfillment is an impossible one to take in, leading to her following him home even after he frees and releases her. For Kaede, the idea of this boy who wants to have fun with her and is not repulsed by her horns is sadly alien to her. In an early, discarded storyline, Jeannie is said to have once been Human but made into a Genie/Djinn, her parents two millennia gone. Lucy never has that luxury, and she is never permitted it, outright told as well that her parents abandoned her to die of exposure in a field. Both Tony and Kouta have their dreams interfered with by these beautiful, determined, powerful women. In Tony's case, it is a series of comical mishaps that threaten his status as a pilot and astronaut; in Kouta's case of course, it is the very deadly serious matter of his family's murder. Both Lucy and Jeannie are prone to either ignoring their intended man's wishes or badly misinterpreting them. For Jeannie, this means strange foods and happenings ; for Lucy it is her fateful choice to go to the carnival and see Kouta--which tragically, she did. While Kouta and Tony are both victims of many comical misunderstandings, for Kouta one misunderstanding, while minor and straightforward, tears his life apart, never to be rebuilt as it was. Both men directly and otherwise, eventually admit they are in love with the one who has turned their lives upside down. Yet while Jeannie gains her goal in the series' last season, it is in the final chapters that Kaede/Lucy must accept that she never will. Tony and eventually Jeannie have Doctor Bellows and his wife as well-meaning busybodies, and Tony's friend Roger Healy. The consequences of their exposure would have been (and almost was, but for an averted series finale) at the very least the loss of Tony's coveted status as an astronaut, scrutiny by a curious US government and unwanted fame, though with Jeannie's powers, some form of escape was at least possible. Kaede, Kouta and all they hold dear had far deeper scrutiny which was not averted, and in fact held several levels of the deepest danger imaginable. Ultimately, their pursuers included a true megalomaniacal madman with ample resources and the entire Japanese government, interested mainly in covering up its ties with the former foe. Summary execution, lifetime imprisonment, torture, organ harvesting, home invasion, rape - there is almost no fate that the residents of Maple House are not threatened with or end up suffering at the hands of these grim forces. In their case, unlike the comical (if potentially disaster-causing) friends of the Nelsons, they are all brought low : Chief Kakuzawa fails long-term, and the Japanese government would almost have to change hands at the ministerial level. Even allowing for vastly different censorship standards (The network executives did not want audiences to see Jeannie's navel; while Nyu holds no secrets, modesty-wise), Elfen Lied does everything in a more extreme manner than its remote ancestor could ever hope to. The disruption to Tony's life is awkward, while the disruption to Kouta's life is seismic. Jeannie's wrath, when awakened, has lethal potential, while Lucy's wrath almost always means instant, painful death. Many an episode of the fifty-year-old sitcom focused on Jeannie simply not understanding the ins and outs of the modern world, like supermarkets, credit cards, salespeople. reporters and the like. In that, she is much like Nana, and her devotion to Tony can be compared to Nana's for Kurama. For Lucy, the problem is never not knowing what money is, or moving around without being noticed. Her disconnect is with Humanity itself, both its good and its bad side. She understands neither, her perceptions forever colored by the spray of her puppy's blood. It is inconceivable to her that Kouta's lie about Yuka's gender was anything but another vicious trick. In a further twist of irony's knife, it is only his rage and confusion over the slaughter of his family that even tells her she did the wrong thing. Even as he attacks her, Kouta does not insult or belittle her, or spray an expletive bomb. Somewhere inside her, she sees that he is questioning and demanding a friend, or one he saw in this manner. Even her decision to flee, based on pure survival instincts, damages him further, as a survivor of such horror is at least briefly also a suspect, when there is no apparent explanation for the carnage. But the girl who is now Lucy in all but name cannot make the leap that decency might not be unique to Kouta. Kouta to her was a freak, an abberation in his gentleness and kindness. Even when, much later, she comes to see all those who dwell in Maple House as ones she holds dear, it is still an abberation, and her view is not so complete as it might be. While Jeannie comes to treasure all of Tony's friends as her own, for a long while, Yuka, Mayu and Nana are disposable or even targeted at times. Still beyond her is the consequence of thinking this way. If she had killed Mayu on the beach while fighting Bando and Nana, and especially if she had split her in two as seemed likely to be her intent, somehow Kouta might well find out, and see that his surrogate daughter died in the same way as his little sister. In both the anime and the manga, seeing Lucy do this is in fact the trigger that awakens his lost memories. In the final season of the sitcom, and in the final volume of the manga, both Tony and Kouta make angry declarations towards their magical girlfriends. Both are in frenzied moments. But while Tony is simply fed up with the accumulated chaos his life and career have seen, Kouta is enraged and states flatly that he hates the murderer of his family, and that he will never forgive her. Yet again the two meet up ; Tony instantly regrets losing Jeannie, and risks flying over the Soviet Union to reach her homeland and get her back. Kouta takes a bullet for Lucy, with the vague excuse of not wanting her to die with things unresolved between them. Yet while Jeannie's gamble has paid off (and likely ended the series by killing its driving premise), Lucy must undergo a painful death, almost literally giving up her life for Kouta's. Yet it is in that sacrificial moment she finally understands that she needs people. rejecting the DNA Voice once and for all. It should be noted that I Dream Of Jeannie had a little dog as well; but it was a Genie dog. Suffice it to say, little Djinn-Djinn, hater of military uniforms on a USAF-NASA base, was not as well-behaved as Wanta. Mistreated by the Sultan's Palace Guards as a pup, he is humorously incapable of seeing past them. At least they do better than guards and military faced down by Lucy, and at least this pup got his own revenge. The Kaede-Sou Vs. The Hinata-Sou '''WARNING ' *'SPOILERS FOR ALL OF THE LOVE HINA MANGA SERIES'* WARNING If there is an easy and obvious comparison to be made in manga and anime proper, it is between Elfen Lied and the manga series that ended just one year prior, Ken Akkamatsu's Love Hina. Indeed, some of the characters seem a direct lift, albeit twisted by the far grimmer world Lynn Okamoto creates. The Male Leads As both series begin, a young man of roughly college age returns to a place he has not been since he was much younger. It is implied or stated that potential seen in that earlier time has somehow fallen away. Keitaro Urashima still believes that he can get into Tokyo University, though this has cost him his room in his parents' home. Kouta is lucky to have gotten into a 'safety school' in a seaside resort that he has not been to in eight years. Keitaro desperately wants to remember the name of a girl he made a sacred promise to attend Tokyo University, or "Todai" with. Kouta has worked so hard at supressing all memories of his past visit to Kamakura that he risks offending his cousin and one-time crush Yuka. Kouta has the seeming aid of his aunt, Yuka's mother, who ends up netting a free groundskeeper for an old tavern and inn in disrepair in exchange for his living there. Keitaro has the seeming indifference of his Aunt Haruka (really his older cousin adopted by their grandmother) who yet secretly likes having her 'nephew' around, at least to keep things lively and to pay back the girls who live there for being such a pain to her. Unknown to them at the time, both young men encounter the girls who shaped their past. Both girls are nude in these encounters, leading to awkwardness. One is seemingly dangerous but is also capable of being compassionate and understanding, and is actually openly supportive of his college ambitions. The other girl is seemingly harmless, yet a great many of Kouta's misfortunes, including lowering his sights on college, come from a side of the girl that even she herself worries over. Keitaro not only has to worry about the wrathful Naru Narusegawa and Motoko Aoyoma, but also the wild and unpredictable Kaolla Su, who is secretly a member of her nation's royal family, and who kicks him in the head for fun - literal fun. She means no harm by this - a genius on many levels, Su likely reasoned out Keitaro's durability early on. But her violent fun is no comfort to him, and her young age convinces the others to keep an eye on Keitaro to see that he doesn't abuse her obvious affection for him. Just as Yuka later adjusts her suspicions of Kouta against the sheer invasiveness of Nyu's antics, so does even Naru astonishingly (though in a consistent, logical manner for her character) not punish or chastise Keitaro when, during one of their study sessions, Su finds her way into Keitaro's porn stash. She shrugs the porn off as a guy thing, and allows that it is all but impossible to keep Su out of something. A similar realization on Mayu's part when Nyu assaults herself, Kouta and Yuka leads to a thaw in relations between the girl and her makeshift 'Papa'. Both young men have fractious, tender relationships with girls of an innocent age. Shinobu Maehara is ironically one of those most openly in love with Keitaro, yet some of his most epic beatings take place as a result of her fragile emotions. When the other ladies percieve that one of her crying jags is his fault, they shift instantly from 'punishment' for his 'perverted intrusions' (though the ladies much later concede that they could have done a better job of locking the doors when dressing or undressed) and to an enraged effort that would destroy any other man. Shinobu herself is horrified that the others wish to hurt her Sempai, and delivers a miniscule amount of the many blows Keitaro takes in the course of the series, only one on purpose. She is perhaps one of the only reasons Keitaro stays at the Hinata-Sou when the abuse is at its worst. Mayu is likely not in love with Kouta, and in fact, the possibility is raised within the series that she will simply never look to a man for any romantic/intimate relationship, though what this means is open for debate and conjecture. Far from having dreams of marrying Kouta, Mayu spends at least part of the series fearing he will menace her, and at least once openly chastises him when his reaction to Nyu's antics causes Yuka pain. But never is she ungrateful, and her fears never manifest themselves as physical abuse of Kouta. Keitaro, weakened by the disappointment of his first failures to enter Todai, is often seen as a bit of a crybaby, and in this, Shinobu is his match. So, in a similar light, is Mayu for Kouta. Both felt the sting of a bitter betrayal when they were younger, and it has robbed them of belief in a simple and just world, a belief they will now never get back. In the anime, Yuka notes how Kouta is able to reach out to Mayu better than she herself can (the storyline of Mayu fearing Kouta never comes up in the anime). Both young men have relatives with property who are economically capable of putting them up without much hardship. Both return to places from their childhood with unreliable memories, though in Keitaro's case, this is mainly the passage of time and not the result of any trauma (that comes later). Both young men, albeit at different intervals of story-time, encounter not one but two girls from that lost time in their childhood, and who they end up with is a major point of fan contention. One girl tends to strike him ; the other causes them problems by way of her loving playful awkward nature, and though in Kouta's case that nature can easily reverse itself, he himself is in almost no danger from this (though those around him probably are). Keitaro must negate his weaknesses and win the love and respect of his harem, though he is later made aware that he achieved this much earlier on than he (or they) realized. Kouta is only a romantic option for three members of his harem, one of whom he never seems to realize feels this way, and one who may effectively blocked herself forever by a tragic violent choice. The Primary Female Characters The analogs are a bit more difficult here. Naru Narusegawa is more of a first among equals in Love Hina's harem structure, and the eventual winner, but there is enough of a focus on the other ladies and enough of a personality divide to make both Kaede and Yuka her counterparts, with a bit of samurai girl Motoko Aoyama thrown in the mix. On the one hand, there can be no doubt that Kaede alone is the primary character of Elfen Lied. But functionally, this lead status is tied to Kouta as secondary lead, and to Yuka as secondary female and secondary romantic lead. One common factor all the characters in both series have is the demonstrable way their approaches to life are part and parcel of why they are not always happy. Yuka can be said to have a strong common point with Keitaro, for example. Both held onto dreams and people for so long, they became anxious, fragile wrecks. Even with their ultimate victories in pursuing their dreams, it is hard not to argue that the derision they sometimes receive would be at least dramatically lessened, had they moved on. Neither Yuka nor Naru are quite as violent in their manga versions as their condensed and distilled anime counterparts, though Naru's hits are never swats, but full-on painful punches. Yet perhaps Yuka is the crueler one in this ; it rapidly becomes clear that Keitaro is at least very durable, later satirized into immortality as the mangaka realized he was over-relying on the hits as a plot device. Also, Keitaro's blows are received in a transactional mode that itself later slips into satire. If he sees one of the ladies in a state of undress (or often, completely naked), he gets hit, regardless of how it happened. It begins to be implied that the girls may also get an illicit thrill from being seen undressed by a boy they all grow to love, but still, rules of polite society demand that a peeper be punished for what he saw. At least once, this is even blatantly parodied when Naru hits him because she walked in on him while changing, half-apologizing while defending it as habit. On the other hand, when Keitaro finally seals the floor-ceiling access between their two rooms, the cause of so many accidental pervert moments, telllingly, Naru immediately unseals it, a sign of their progressing relationship. But when Yuka strikes Kouta, she may seem pettier and more violent than Naru. Kouta is not immortal. He has been socially held back by his traumas, so his denseness is a great deal more understandable. While the ladies of the Hinata-Sou almost understand that not every intrusion is Keitaro's fault, they do fault him for his flustered staring and seeming inability to quickly withdraw (their own inability to close or lock doors is another issue altogether). But Yuka comes to know outright that Keitaro has twin problems : Traumatic amnesia, and a playful but aggressive Nyu. Yet she still reacts as though in both instances, he is in full control and tasks him even when she doesn't strike him. If Naru striking Keitaro eventually becomes a big part of their fractured courtship ritual, Yuka striking Kouta is a sign of pure rage against the fates that keep playing keep-away with her dreams. Like Kouta, Naru also does not remember her childhood meeting with the ones who will once again become so important to her. Most of this can be attributed to her very young age, about two years younger than her playmates, Keitaro and Mutsumi. But the very strong Naru was also very sickly at the time, and it is at least implied that she doesn't like to remember being so weak, and that perhaps she associates that time in her life with the prospect of almost dying. Naru can not be said to have amnesia, and the return of Mutsumi to their lives begins to bring back her memories. For her, the return of these recollections is among the confirming factors that she and Keitaro were meant to be (even if it seems Mutsumi was more likely the actual promise girl), while for Kouta, the return of his memories seems to completely doom any prospects he and Kaede/Lucy/Nyu ever had. Both Yuka and Kaede share differing common traits with Motoko Aoyoma. Just as Yuka feels shame over the more physical side of her desire for Kouta, so is Motoko doubly repressed about her romantic and sexual feelings for Keitaro. In Yuka's case, awkwardness with both Kouta and Nyu place her in arousal she considers improper ; in fact, Nyu is almost unique in anime and manga for being a female 'groper' who gets struck just as a male would. In Motoko's case, she is repulsed that she has an attraction to not only a man (who she considers universal monsters because one married her older sister and mentor) but to an apparently weak-willed one who has 'assaulted' her on so many occasions. But Motoko's front of hatred was perhaps too good a disguise for her feelings. Even though Keitaro finds her very attractive, she seems to be off his radar. While Naru is the more violent towards him, these times are also punctuated by times of getting along and even enjoying each other's company. Motoko, almost through to her breakthrough confession late in the series, keeps up a front of at best barest toleration of his presence. While hints existed (and in retrospect perhaps abounded), to Keitaro, this was a girl he could not and would not ever be able to impress. While this was far from the only reason for his eventual choice of Naru, her dismissive disguise cost Motoko. Her choice, born of fear and panic, echoes in a less violent way young Lucy's murder of Kouta's family, which placed their love forever out of reach. Yet it should be noted, just as Kouta kept trying to find a way to bring Kaede home, right up to the moment of her death, so did Keitaro continue to be loyal to Motoko, aiding her in overcoming her taskmaster sister (who only wanted her to grow as a person anyway) and still earning her love even as he confirmed his choice of life-mate and married Naru. Perhaps for both Motoko and Kaede, the final chance to make their feelings clear (Apology for Kaede, Confession for Motoko) was almost an acceptable second to actually gaining the one they loved. The Innocents Both the similarities and the differences between Shinobu Maehara and Mayu are extreme, to say the least. At the start of the manga version of Love Hina, Shinobu's accidental sighting of the nude Keitaro begins a long series of warnings from the other ladies that, should Keitaro ever move on the young girl, his end will be swift and certain. For a time, any gesture between the two leads to a repeat of the warning, and Shinobu herself sometimes fears that Keitaro will do something to her, though less in a violent or unwilling way than in a seduction. The girl is as nervous and prone to tears as the man she openly loves almost from the start. In her eyes, though, the luckless, shy young man is very nearly a god, and were it not for her nerves, she might be quite willing to indulge any desires on their parts. While Keitaro finds her 'cute' (indicating that she might one day be a prospect), the idea of ever using his 'kohai' in this way is in fact repulsive to him. When the series starts, she is only twelve, and even if his feelings and choice made him confess his love (and it is likely the two do love each other ; the age timing is merely wrong and unable to be surmounted) the strong indication is, he would wait until she was of age, as much for his own morals as any warning from Motoko and Naru. In part, it is his positive treatment of Shinobu - neither preying on her nor dismissing her intense crush - that slowly (VERY slowly) begins to raise him up in the estimation of the other members of his 'harem' - some of whom may actually envy Shinobu's open declaration of what they all start to feel. While Shinobu has only two 'hits' against Keitaro for the entire series, she is in fact responsible for some of his greatest and most epic beatings - 'You Made Shinobu Cry!' - ringing in his ears whenever he steps on the landmines of a dealing with the intense crush/love of a mature yet still very young woman. Despite her age and nerves, it is not too hard to see why Shinobu actually outranks Naru in fan-ratings of the 'harem' members. When the others are cruel and vindictive (and in denial) to him, Shinobu is always nice, and takes those occasions she wrongs him very seriously. The only time the two ever butt heads is when Shinobu realizes that, despite their fractious if not violent relationship, Keitaro has chosen Naru to marry. Keitaro and Shinobu will always be a great love, if simply because Keitaro protected not only her virginity, but her heart, even when he was forced to break it. While certain kinds of contact were forbidden them, it can however be said that managing her innocence was a full-contact sport. Mayu, sadly, has no more worries about her physical innocence, the brutal taking of which also shattered her mental and spiritual innocence. If Yuka worries about Kouta with Nyu, she seems to have no such worries about him with Mayu. Instead, it is Mayu herself who fears him, and not for a seduction. Her fears of him are drawn out by a comical misunderstanding, but in Mayu's worries, there is no wackiness or slapstick. To rebuild her ability to trust, Mayu oddly reaches past her new family to the acerbic and even abusive Bando, gambling that there was more to him than his very gruff exterior let on. Whether an actual part of his present-day personality or the result of his traumas, Kouta has a certain density about feelings. While he is more courageous than early Keitaro, he lacks his counterpart's easy empathy and somewhat greater ability to pick up on feelings, even if this rarely serves him well. This is demonstrated in their relationships with Mayu and Shinobu as well. Kouta for the most part only seems to know that things have become awkward between himself and Mayu, and doesn't seem to realize she however briefly regards him as a menace. At the end of their series, Shinobu has begun to move past Keitaro, though seemingly not entirely, while Mayu has largely put fears of Kouta behind her, especially after he is shot and very nearly killed. The series' two innocents (though others fit this, it tends to be more identified with Mayu and Shinobu) share much common ground. The household cooking and cleaning tend to fall to them, Shinobu out of love for her family, and Mayu wishing to contribute to her new home. Both left home at a tender age. While Mayu obviously had the far greater reason to leave, her flight itself was an easy decision, perhaps the only choice she had. For Shinobu, there had been no abuse, and yet the dissolution (averted in the manga as a separation that ended in reconciliation) of her parents' marriage seemed just as unthinkable. TBC... Category:Essays